Teen enters plea deal in shooting

Wednesday

May 6, 2009 at 12:01 AM

Patrick R. Bell, the 17-year-old accused of shooting his friend in the face last month, pleaded no contest Tuesday afternoon in juvenile court in exchange for enrollment in a maximum risk detention program run by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.

By Suevon LeeStaff Writer

Patrick R. Bell, the 17-year-old accused of shooting his friend in the face last month, pleaded no contest Tuesday afternoon in juvenile court in exchange for enrollment in a maximum risk detention program run by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice."I am giving him the highest juvenile punishment I can give him," Circuit Judge Robert Hodges told the victim, Rashad Wooden, who attended the hearing with his mother.Bell was charged with attempted second-degree murder in the April 14 shooting of Wooden, a childhood friend.Authorities say Wooden was struck twice in the face with shots from a .32-caliber semiautomatic weapon.Bell, who has no prior criminal record, was in the passenger's seat as Wooden was driving him home from his aunt's house. The victim reported seeing a flash and hearing a bang as the car came to a four-way stop at an intersection.The motive is unclear, although defense attorney Charles Holloman said after the hearing it stemmed anywhere from "alleged accident to robbery."There is no minimum mandatory sentence Bell must serve since he was sentenced as a juvenile. But he will be designated a serious or habitual offender and have his driver's license revoked for a year upon his supervised release.Had the defendant, who is just four months shy of turning 18, been tried as an adult, he could have faced up to life in prison under Florida's 10-20-Life law, which requires life sentences for defendants found guilty of possessing and discharging a gun, causing serious bodily injury or death.Bell's commitment into juvenile prison means he's required to be released by his 22nd birthday, or four years down the road.Tuesday's sentence didn't sit well with Wooden or his mother, who asked Hodges if she could directly address the defendant in court.

"You put all of our families in total hardship," she told Bell."I don't feel it was justified, but hey, it's the system," she said afterwards about the sentence.Assistant State Attorney Brenda Mitchell emphasized that Bell was sentenced up to the maximum juvenile term possible. Asked why the state did not wait to try Bell as an adult, she replied that there were "proof issues."Wooden, who spent a week in the hospital after the shooting and now has three permanent screws in his face, said he had been friends with the defendant since elementary school and that their relationship was by no means stormy."I don't know what was on his mind," he said regarding the evening he was shot.Holloman said Bell had simply been "hanging with the wrong crowd."